Typing "natural wine bar near me" on Broome Street pulls up a cluster of newer rooms with polished concrete and careful lighting, and rarely surfaces the bar that helped start the category in the first place. The Ten Bells opened in 2008, before natural wine had much of a marketing budget in New York, and it has stayed in the same dim, wraparound-bar room on Broome Street ever since.
Ask Karpo before you go and get a same-day read on whether the wraparound bar has open stools tonight or whether a group booking makes more sense.
A wraparound bar built for two kinds of nights
The room is small enough that the bar itself does most of the organizing. A wraparound bar anchors the space, flanked by a handful of high-tops for anyone drinking solo or in a pair, while communal seating and a run of larger tables handle bigger groups. The layout means a single person can walk in, find a stool, and start working through the wine list without needing a plan.
That same layout gets tight once the room fills, which it is often described as doing early in the evening. Anyone who wants a stool at the bar rather than a squeeze at a communal table is better off arriving close to opening than counting on a lull later on.
Why the room feels older than 2008
The Ten Bells opened in 2008 and has been credited since as one of the early natural wine bars in New York, back when the format was still a niche pour rather than a neighborhood fixture. The wine list runs through natural, organic, and biodynamic bottles alongside some conventional ones, built around small producers rather than recognizable labels.
The physical room has aged into that reputation rather than being designed to look the part. It reads as naturally dim rather than staged-dark, worn in the places a room actually gets worn, and it photographs better than a space this unfussy has any obligation to.
Tapas built for sharing across a long pour list
The kitchen runs a Spanish-leaning tapas menu built for passing around a table rather than eating solo, which tracks with the communal seating. Recent menus have included baby eels, boquerones, salt-cured sardines, and piquillo peppers stuffed with tuna, alongside more familiar share plates.
Beer is also on the list, which is easy to overlook in a room built around its wine program. It is a reasonable option for anyone at the table not drinking wine, without derailing the by-the-glass exploration for everyone else.
Booking ahead or taking a chance
Reservations run through Resy, and the room also takes walk-ins, which matters given how small it is. Evenings and dates make up the busiest stretch, based on how consistently the room gets described that way, while Sunday afternoons from opening tend to pull a calmer, less date-focused crowd in for an early glass.
- Mon–Wed: 5pm–12am
- Thu–Fri: 5pm–1am
- Sat: 3pm–1am; Sun: 3pm–11pm
- Reservations via Resy; walk-ins welcome
- Nearest subway: F to Delancey St, or J/M/Z to Delancey–Essex Sts
The practical read is straightforward: book ahead for a group table on a weekend evening, and treat a solo or two-person visit earlier in the week as workable without a reservation.
Getting there from Delancey
The bar sits on Broome Street between Ludlow and Orchard, a block south of Delancey, in a stretch of the Lower East Side that has become something of a natural wine corridor. The F train stops at Delancey St, and the J, M, and Z trains stop at Delancey–Essex Sts, both a short walk away.
The location makes it easy to fold into a wider wine crawl — Parcelle and the rest of the Dimes Square wine scene sit within the same few blocks — or to treat as a single stop before or after dinner elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Private rooms and a name nobody explains
Beyond the main room, The Ten Bells has two private rooms available for events, holding up to 43 seated or 60 standing, which is a reasonable option for a group that wants the wine list without competing for space with regular walk-in traffic.
The name itself borrows from a bar in London's Spitalfields neighborhood, and the reasoning behind the choice has never been made public. It is a small, unresolved detail in a room that otherwise reads as fairly straightforward about what it is.
Practical notes
The Ten Bells is at 247 Broome St, between Ludlow and Orchard Sts, on the Lower East Side. Hours run Monday to Wednesday 5pm to midnight, Thursday and Friday 5pm to 1am, Saturday 3pm to 1am, and Sunday 3pm to 11pm. The nearest subway stops are Delancey St on the F and Delancey–Essex Sts on the J, M, and Z. Reservations can be made through Resy, and walk-ins are common enough that arriving without one is a reasonable plan on a quieter night. The wine list mixes natural, organic, biodynamic, and some conventional bottles with a Spanish-leaning tapas menu and a short beer list. Two private rooms are available for larger groups by arrangement.
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Please drink responsibly. Must be of legal drinking age.
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Ask Karpo first
Ask Karpo whether tonight's crowd is skewing toward the bar stools or the communal tables before deciding whether to book, and check what private-room availability looks like if you are weighing The Ten Bells against another Lower East Side wine bar for a group.
